Definitions

Summary

• Peace is safety from war. Practicing peace is practicing all the things that keep us safe from war.
• War is politically organized violence. It is different from other forms of violence because it is public, legitimate, and planned by large numbers for political objectives.
• World peace is when the whole world is safe from war.

For most people, world peace has been a beauty-pageant platitude, an empty sentiment, or a vague dream. Many believe that war exists on the planet for good reasons and is outside of our control. By looking more closely at these ideas, we can begin to envision what else is possible.

Let’s start with the word "peace" itself. It's definitely a loaded term! Being peaceful can mean being serene, nice, non-violent, or tolerating other people or other groups. It can mean being in nature or being spiritual. It can be boring or relaxing. It can mean suppressing anger, oppressing dissent, and it can even refer to the mysterious "peace of death."

In P:5Y, we give peace a very precise definition quite different from all of the above. Our definition is designed to free you to act vigorously for peace and have fun doing it.

Our definition is: Peace is safety. Peace is safety from war. We all want to be safe, from many different dangers. We want to be safe while driving or while we're a passenger. We want to be safe during an earthquake or a hurricane. We want to be safe on a plane or on a train.

There are many practices and measurements of safety for each particular danger. In order to be safe with automobiles, we wear seatbelts and look both ways before crossing the street. To be safe in airplanes, we have specialists who conduct rigorous procedures that are specific to airplanes. To keep us safe from war, we can practice peace safety.

If peace is safety from war, then what exactly is "war"? The famous 19th-century Prussian military historian and theorist Carl von Clausewitz defined war as "politics by other means." War is different from other forms of violence because is it politically organized.

P:5Y's definition of war is: Politically organized violence.

Now that we have precise definitions for war and peace, what then is “world peace”? Our definition is: World peace is a state of our world in which everyone is safe from war.

Presently, according to the International Crisis Group, there are sixteen major conflicts in the world. We will only be able to say that we have world peace when that number is zero.

One final definition: our deadline for worldwide safety from war is February 14th, 2014.